Without You
by Angel of Neptune
Summary: With her memories restored after crossing the town line, Belle awakens to a world where Ruby is nowhere to be found.


**Title**: Without You

**Author:** AoN

**Word Count: **880

**Genre:** Angst

**Rating:** PG

**Feedback:** Please and thank you! Let me know what I'm doing right or doing wrong.

**Summary: **With her memories restored after crossing the town line, Belle awakens to a world where Ruby is nowhere to be found.

They felt like dreams, phantom memories of imaginary events that were far from the realm of Belle's reality. They were too clear, too finely detailed to exist only as intangible dreams, but dark enough to be the most haunting of nightmares.

Lacey. That had been her name, the name of the alternate being that Belle refused to embrace as her own possibility. She did not have anything to do with her: those spoken words and taken actions, her composure, and overall sense of self… None of it was real, Belle told herself, and none of it could be true.

Then why? Why did she have these memories when Lacey herself had been nothing but a lie? Why did the world around Belle continue when she, herself, was suspended from its very existence? Why did she have to face this truth now while Lacey remained unscathed? Belle had to face the reality. Belle, alone, had to suffer.

Belle remembered being released from the hospital. No, not her. Lacey. Lacey was released to a town in mourning. Mourning for who? Lacey did not even bother, but Belle? Belle, on the other hand, through Lacey's recollection, remembered the intercom system blaring loudly code blue. All available nurses and doctors scrambled to get to the emergency room. Far from being in their centered attention and pricking needles, Lacey peeked out from her room, ventured through the hallways, even.

Barely turning a corner, she watched as a woman with short black hair pull away from the man who had his arms wrapped around her in comfort. Remarks and statements about a battle of sorts occurring in town, all over a dagger, and this victim had been unfairly caught in the crossfires circulated angrily among them. Another woman, one with long blonde hair, watched on, shell-shocked.

"She can't be gone!" the woman shouted, grabbing a handful of the doctor's dirtied scrubs. "Whale, go in there and help her!" she demanded.

"I've done everything," the man named Whale replied, pulling the wild woman off him. "There is nothing else we can do."

"No, don't say that."

"I'm sorry, Mary Margaret. She's gone."

What occurred next, Lacey did not witness, that is, if anything _had_ occurred next. Her sight grew blurry and then completely dark, meaning one of the orderlies caught her off guard and, without a doubt, tranquilized her as though she were nothing more but an untamable animal.

Lacey did not think twice of what she saw. They had been in a hospital – not everyone was fortunate enough to leave the hospital still breathing. Nor did Lacey attend the memorial that was held after she had been released, even when that man – Rumple – told her it was in her best interest. Lacey did not have any connection to the decease.

But Belle? Belle did and Lacey robbed her of the chance to say goodbye to the only dear friend she had in Storybrooke, a goodbye that Belle never wanted to say.

A goodbye, a lost opportunity Belle had never wanted to take, but would have. It had been Belle's last chance, a chance that should have never been. Why couldn't this have been a nightmare, one from which Belle could wake instead of live?

Belle saw the freshly dug earth from afar, signaling which plot she would ultimately be visiting, without having to read tombstones after tombstone. Thunder rumbled above, the gray clouds swirling slowly by, threatening to rain, just as Belle's own pooling tears threatened to fall. She took each step with heavy dread, bringing herself closer and closer to a reality she did not want to accept, but was hers regardless.

When Belle reached the newly made grave, she found it impossible to life her eyes from the damp dirt, a patch void of any grass. Belle was close. They were close – only six feet away. Feeling a lump growing in her throat, Belle bit down on her lip, trying to keep a cracking damn from breaking. Slowly, as she felt herself tremble, Belle forced herself to look up, to cast her eyes on the stone she had been avoiding.

Belle broke. An inhumane wail, full of despair, rang throughout what had once been an eerily silent cemetery, masked only by another low rumbling of thuner. Tears fell freely as her body shook with raking sobs. It brought her down to her knees, which dug into the cold ground as droplets of rain fell against her jacket cladded back. Placing her hands upon the edge of the headstone, Belle leaned forward as she cried openly.

She was familiar with the power of words. They had granted her such happiness before, they took her to far away places, and gave her so many adventures. Never before had an engraving, such arbitrary symbols coming together to shatter her very real world, never before had they caused her such grief, a grief that would go unfelt by the nevermore Lacey.

'Here lies a dear loved one and friend

Ruby Lucas'

_**End**_


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